A casino is a gambling establishment that offers games of chance and often provides complimentary drinks and stage shows to attract customers. Casinos are generally located in tourist areas or are associated with hotels, resorts, restaurants, cruise ships and other tourist attractions.

Gambling is a part of human culture that dates back millennia. Evidence of dice throwing appears in 2300 BC, and card games came into play shortly thereafter. Today, casino gambling is a multi-billion dollar industry, and while it’s no longer the sole preserve of mobster bosses and their mafia minions, it hasn’t lost any of its allure.

While casino games do involve a element of luck, their rules are mathematically determined to give the house an advantage over players. This advantage can be expressed as expected value, which is uniformly negative from the player’s point of view (though a few games have slightly positive expected values). Casinos make their money by taking a portion of each pot in table games or charging an hourly fee for slot machines.

A casino’s interior design is based around noise, light and excitement to keep patrons enthralled. Lush carpets and richly tiled hallways are complimented by carefully arranged lighting to accentuate the sense of drama, mystery and excitement. Most casinos also have a large prize on display, often a sports car or something of similar value, to draw in gamblers.